Biopharmaceutical Company, Executives Charged With Misleading Investors About Cancer Drug

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that a Boulder, Colorado-based biopharmaceutical company, its CEO, and its former CFO will pay more than $20 million in penalties to settle charges of misleading investors about the company’s developmental lung cancer drug. The SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in Denver alleges that over a four-month period starting in July 2015, Clovis Oncology Inc. and CEO Patrick Mahaffy misled investors about how well Clovis’ flagship lung cancer drug worked compared to another drug. According to the complaint, the company’s investor presentations, press releases, and SEC filings stated that the drug was effective 60 percent of the time, far higher than suggested by actual results available internally.